“We feel that we can capitalize on the popularity of ESPN2 Friday Night Fights, whose ratings were up significantly this year, by getting into boxing pay-per-view at this time,” ESPN senior vice president of programming John Wildhack said in a prepared statement.

“Creating pay-per-view events and producing world-class bouts for our ESPN2 Friday Night Fights series allows us to better serve our viewers and help to grow a new generation of boxers,” he added.